Nothing to lose, right?
by Floridasun
Summary: When CP9 is in need of a new secretary, Cara a girl in her mid 20s decides "Why not?" and takes the dive. First fanfic I've ever written. In this story, the whole Straw hat invasion thing never happened. I'm terrible at summaries. Rated M for (probably) later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** – **Well… this is my first fan fiction ever so there will probably be some mistakes/errors to it. Also, I'm open to reviews, but keep it on the positive side. Since I'm going to be on vacation next week I'll try to make this a long first chapter, and I'll try to write a lot over the vacation but I won't have internet connection to post them. Also, I'm a guy… writing from a girl's perspective… so don't rage if I fail to pin their (terrifying) inner thoughts correctly.**

**Disclaimer thingy-stuff – I don't own One Piece and all that…. I hope.**

** '**_Tick…Tock…_' Cara checked her watch for the third time that afternoon. She had been out of a job for a couple weeks now and when she saw the opening as a secretary and Enies Lobby, she figured 'Why not? Being a secretary must not be too hard, I mean, I can alphabetize and answer calls. What could go wrong anyways?' She couldn't have been in for a bigger shock.

When she entered the waiting room for her interview, this weird guy with a really long nose sat her down at a table. "Before I introduce you to the rest of the crew." – He smiled begrudgingly "We'll need you to swear an oath of secrecy so that if you were to decline the job offer- should you be accepted- that you will not inform anyone of this company's real identity. Is this okay?"

Cara's insides churned uneasily; suddenly she wasn't so keen on that 'What could go wrong?' aspect of life. "Sure…. I mean I guess there's no backing out now"- she chuckled nervously.

The man laughed, flashing a row a sterling white teeth "Great! I think you'll get along well. By the way, my name's Kaku, I'll probably be the best person to talk to should you have any problems with the company." His hand came up from his side offering a hand shake.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Cara." She accepted his handshake taking note of how the seemingly gently man had such calloused hands.

"The pleasure is mine. Now for the sake of time, the will act as your 'Oath of Secrecy'"- He grinned wide "I'll go inform the others and we'll bring you in in say, 20 minutes, Okay?"

"That'll be fine"- she let out a relieved smile, at least they weren't the uptight pricks she was normally dealing with.

The Kaku guy stood up, grinned once more and exited quickly to a room on her right. As soon as she heard the door click shut she let out a loud sigh, luckily she would know one friendly face when she went into the interview. While the time silently passed by though, she got more and more nervous, she checked her hair, contemplated what she could have done better, and made sure there weren't any wrinkles in her skirt and blouse. In short, she was freaking out, big time, '_What's up with this Secrecy thing_'-she thought _'I wonder what they could be hiding, maybe they're drug dealers? Nah that Kaku guy is way too nice to be a criminal_. _I guess only time will tell now.'_

But ever so slowly, as the time passed, she began to slouch more and more into her chair until her head was nearly when her hips had been when she began, when the door on her right opened with a loud click. Cara immediately yelped and scrambled to get into a much more reasonable position. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck._ There goes my orderly appearance.' –she thought a_s her façade of neatness and manners crumbled.

Kaku glanced at her with one raised eyebrow, grinned wider than she thought possible and said "Well, at least you aren't as boring as you looked"

Cara didn't know whether to be red with anger at the 'Boring' comment or glad that things hadn't gone worse. Deciding how much she needed this job, she stood up smoother her attire once more flashed Kaku a smile and stepped into the room.

She almost forgot to breathe as she saw the deciding force behind her job. No wonder Kaku laughed at her slouching, as she glanced around the room she inwardly sighed in despair, there were three people in the room aside from her and Kaku. At the head of the table sat a man wearing a black suit with a little pigeon on his shoulder to his right sat a man that seemed to be the polar opposite of the first, this man wore pajama pants and a top, both decorated with little wolves chasing after sheep. At the moment the man appeared to be sleeping, if the growing bubble coming from his nose was any hint. And finally, on the left sat a tall lady with shoulder length blonde hair. Cara's eyes nearly burst from her sockets at the lady's attire, from the pants that would make practically no difference if they had just been left off, to the fishnets covering majority of her torso, legs, and arms. '_This is going to be a day to tell stories about'_- she thought as she sat uncertainly at the opposite side of the table.

Cara almost jumped out her seat though when Kaku went over to the sleeping man's form, raised his leg, and slammed it back down onto the man's head. An audible crack could be heard throughout the room, at first Cara thought it had come from the sleeping man's skull being crushed into oblivion and was about to bolt from the room, until she heard an angry grumble coming from the debris and saw the man stand up to face Kaku, pure fire leaking out of his eyes as he growled "Kaku, is the any reason as to why you fucking woke me from one of my happy drea-" He stopped as he glanced around and saw Cara. For a moment the entire room was silent then, the man breathed in quietly "I see… Apologies for the disruption ma'am." as he glanced at her again and sat down.

"Well, now that everyone's ready let's get this over with." Kaku took a seat in between Cara and the originally sleeping man. Kaku smiled warmly "First off, let's get through introductions and explanations." The man at the head of the table raised an eyebrow but said nothing." First off I'll introduce you to everyone, the man that was so rudely sleeping (Kaku sent a glare at him) is Jyabura. He's a pain but it'll grow on you… like the deadly disease it is. Next off is Lucci the other male in this room." Said man remained silent still (something that was started to annoy her) and tipped his hat slightly. "And the lady on is left goes by Kalifa."

"Sexual Harassment"- she said with a wink in her eye as she turned towards Cara, smiled slightly and waved.

"Now for the explaining," Kaku said with that omnipresent grin "As you may have guessed we are no ordinary company, we are a group of assassins hired by the world government to manage pirates in a more discreet manner. Our group goes by the name of CP9 or cipher pol 9. We have all gone through rigorous training and are rivaled by very few on the grand line. Before you get any paler than you already are and start looking for possible exits like majority of our interviewees, we are only hired to go after PIRATES, not innocent-or at least I hope- civilians. If you thought we would try to bring you harm, it would have already been done."-The Jyabura guy winced slightly at Kaku's brutal honesty.

"Okay! Now that that's done with, let's get on with the actual interview. Each of us will introduce ourselves and then ask a question about you. Try to answer as best you can, even if it makes you uncomfortable, these questions will help us determine whether or not to hire you. For the sake of comfort, I'll begin, first of all, I'm Kaku, I am a zoan devil's fruit user that allows me the powers of a giraffe. For my question I would like to know, where are you from?"

"Well, to begin, my name is Cara to those I haven't met, and to answer your question, I am from the island of LogueTown. Due to the increasing amount of pirates assaulting my home on the way to the Grand Line, when I was 19 I hopped onto one of the merchant ships heading to the Grand Line in order to obtain some peace of mind. And I've been here ever since"- She smiled a bit and turned her face towards her next interrogator, the man named Jyabura.

"Welp… I'm Jyabura, I have the devil's fruit zoan power of the wolf, basically the same as Kaku 'cept with wolves and what not. My question is towards your hobbies."-Cara took note as to the fact that the man refused to make eye contact with her and was constantly twiddling his thumbs, but said nothing about it.

"My hobbies would probably include reading, sun-bathing, playing cello (**A/N- Cellist here and I just couldn't resist :P)** and swimming."-Cara replied, wondering how hobbies affected how likely she was to get a job, but just went with it, glancing at the next man (Lucci was his name if she remembered correctly).

"My name is Lucci… this is Hattori… Yea, that's about it"- With the same monotonous voice all throughout. _'At least he's talking now'_ she thought with an inward chuckle, noticing how Kaku was glaring daggers at Lucci's seemingly apathetic face.

"Last but not least, I'm Kalifa, I'm the force that's keeping this group together until we get an actual secretary considering how cooking is like calculus to these guys and can't even make a cup of coffee right. "- She smiled briefly before looking to Kaku and asking "Are we done? Considering how she's the only one that hasn't bolted on us while 'going to the bathroom' I think she's the best we'll find"

"I Believe you're right on this one, so" turning to Cara Kaku smiled "Do you want the job?"

Cara almost visibly inflated at hearing this news, but somehow managed to keep her calm and replied coolly "I don't see anything too abnormal about this soo…. Sure why not."

At hearing this Jyabura's head jerked up and he smiled for the first time that evening –"Great! We prefer to have our employees living in CP9 headquarters I'll show you where the rooms are, you can pick any, as long as no one's using them"- He grinned.

Cara stood up to shake hands with Kaku while turning to Jyabura "That would be fantastic."

**A/N – 2 hours later an im done with the first form of creative writing that wasn't forced on me in quite a long time. Sorry I couldn't make the chapter longer after a certain point, I started spacing out in between every 3 sentences :D and it got really tiring so, I'll pick back up on this in a day or two and try to at least post one more chapter before I go on vacation but i'm going to wait and see how this first goes.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Sorry about the wait, I've been on a cruise and they charged ridiculous prices for the internet so I decided I could wait a couple days.**

"The rooms are all designed the same so it's just a matter of location on where you want to live."-Jyabura explained. "While you work here, you'll probably be doing less secretarial work and more basic housekeeping. Kalifa was managing it until we hired someone (Jyabura nods at Cara without turning around). But first of all, she can't make coffee for the life of her, and second, ever since she got her devil's fruit, she has been obsessed with cleanliness and we all have quite a bit of bruises from the first room inspections she did to prove it."

Cara chuckled at the thought. _'This guy's kinda hot if I do say so myself, well so were the others I guess, it's just they're not here for… inspection.'_ -she wondered as she followed Jyabura though the seemingly endless hallways, eyeing his toned back when he wasn't looking; signs of extensive training were visible, if the large muscle mass was any clue._ 'I bet the front provides an even better view'_ they had already passed the break room, before she realized she had been daydreaming of Jyabura topless, the only reason she had stopped was because she noticed Jyabura had been looking at her curiously while Cara's eyes roamed over his body. "See anything you like? You know… sometimes, we're given missions where we have to, ah… seduce our target. It's always fun"- He smiled wolfishly as Cara blushed at the continued hints of the man's "night" life but managed to keep walking behind him. The break room, filled with a couple couches, 2 TVs, and a massive kitchen appeared to be the room where the least time was spent, if the dust bunnies forming on the game stations meant anything. On the floor above that was the gym which the entire company seemed to take a little bit too seriously, the gym alone contained equipment worth well over 100 million beli, one of the most expensive rooms in the entire tower. Currently they were on the third floor where Jyabura's garden was located. '_At least he does something aside from killing people, although it's still a strange pass-time.'_

Noticing Cara's raised eyebrow when they walked by the doors to the garden, Jyabura grinned awkwardly "Everyone needs a hobby, right?"

"Alright, alright, I'll take it. So, please explain the pajamas even though it's only…7 PM?" She said, nodding towards Jyabura's clothes; a set of tight fitting Wool pants(which did wonders to frame his legs) and a shirt consisting of little wolves chasing after fat sheep, as the little scenes got closer to his neckline, the closer the wolves got until finally, there was a disturbingly gory depiction of the wolf catching the sheep.

"After about 7 interviews consisting of applicants going wide-eyed at the truth of company, then disappearing when they ask for a 'quick bathroom break' I kinda gave up hope on day 1"-He grinned slightly, pulling at his neck awkwardly.

"So I was actually the first one to not chicken out?"

Jyabura nodded while he walked next to her up the stairs leading to the final floor. "Yea, I mean, I don't get why they all freaked out so much, all they be doing is making meals and cleaning the main rooms, it's not like they'd actually have to train with us or anything." Reaching the top of the stairs, he stopped and turned to Cara. "Okay, this is the dorm area, you can take any room you want except for those that are taken, obviously"-He smiled gesturing down the hallway, holding at least 14 doors.

"What's up with the all the rooms? Did you bring your families with you?"-She laughed upon seeing the amount of rooms available for her to choose.

"You never know who's going to knock on your door these days."-He grinned.

Cara jokingly put on a sad face, pouting slightly. Doing her best to look injured she sniffled a bit "Are you saying that I'm an unwelcome guest? And here I thought, I'd be a helpful member of the team" –she said, loosening her scarf to wipe a fake tear, exposing her cleavage at the same time.

"Of course not, you see, with there being more men than women, it makes it a little awkward for some of us. Think of yourself as a welcome distraction, not an unwelcome guest. "-He smirked while awkwardly looking for something else to stare at, eyes darting from the walls which were completely blank, to his shoes.

Cara giggled slightly at this, making her strawberry locks falling down her shoulders look natural. "Was that… a compliment? Oh my, are you flirting with me Mr. Jyabura?"- She whispered with the widest eyes she could make without bursting out laughing. "Oh, this is all happening so fast, I don't know what to say. I'm flattered, but really, you don't think I'm that pretty, do you?"

Jyabura licked his lips, trying to look cool. "Well, flirting would imply that I view you as hot or… attractive, and considering the fact that I am a straight man… Yes you could take it that way, now, just pick a room and we'll finish up the day, okay?"

Cara, being taken aback by the man's honesty, began blushing furiously, which she then attempted to cover up by turning her face._ 'I will not lose this game to him.'_ "Well which room is yours? I want to know if I have one of my night terrors, I'll be able to find a big… strong… man to help me"-she whispered, taking in a deep breath with each of the last words while slowly dragging a finger along her cleavage. "I take it the door that smells strongly of wet dog is yours?" She grinned and proceeding to walk towards said door.

Jyabura placed his arm against the wall, blocking off the door while effectively pinning her to the wall also. "Yes, that is mine. Now, unless you want a personal tour, how about you pick a room and we can finish the night?

Seeing an opportunity while both of Jyabura's arms blocked her from moving, she moved forward sinuously, pressing her body to his and leaning up to his ear to whisper-"Oh, well I don't know… I don't think I'll be able to sleep alone, my first night in a new place… And it would so terrible if I failed to get enough sleep in order to function properly for my first day of… work" She put extra emphasis on the word 'work', letting her breaths tickle the hairs on his neck.

Jyabura's chest rumbled, sounding almost like a growl, which then turned into a dark chuckle as he proceeded to pick up a surprised Cara, who let out a very unladylike yelp, and carried her into his room instead. Carrying her bridal style as he walked over to his bed, a messy affair of brown and black blankets, he dropped her ungraciously onto the bed and continues to undress himself, Cara all the while watching with wide eyes absorbing every detail of his body. When he got to his boxers thought, he grinned and stopped. "It would be bad if our new employee were too sore to work on her first day of work" Cara pouted when she realized that the show was over but then noticed he was probably right. Jyabura slipped into the bed as she finished taking off her skirt, now in only her bra and panties, pulling the blanket over both of them and draping his arm over her.

"I guess you're right, not like I wanted to do anything of that sort with a dog like you"- she said as she moved closer to him, making herself as warm as possible by the strange heat the man put off.

"Is that so?"-He replied, smiling as he continued to pull Cara into almost a bear hug as he closed his eyes, letting out a contented sigh as he did. -"Well, we'll have to change that, or things would be awkward around here."

Cara allowed herself a yawn as she closed her eyes. She turned around slowly to hug the toned pillow as sleep began to take her.

**A/N – I know, I'm being a tease. But I like to think of it as a way to grab more readers :).**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N – Sorry it's been a while, every time I tried to sit down and type, I've either stared at the wall trying to think of something or I've fallen asleep in the next 10 minutes. **

"You know, if you think I'm so dirty, being a wolf and all that, you could fool someone pretty well with all the hugging you've done while you were sleeping. It actually made it a little hard to sleep, being half choked to death and all that. Did anyone ever tell you that you talk in your sleep, I heard you mention something about a 'Good doggy' I hope you weren't dreaming of me already."

Cara's eyes slowly cracked open, revealing the bloodshot globes underneath. Still trying to organize her thoughts into a coherent sentence, she glanced at her surroundings; a messy affair of black and brown covers sprawled over an unfamiliar bed, a strong odor of dog filled the room, and finally, a smirking face inches away from hers.

Glaring at the intrusion of her personal space, she retreated to the few inches remaining on her side of the bed, replying angrily "Did you know that you smell horrible? It's a shame my attempt to strangle you failed, would've been a nice break from all the breathing down my neck."

Jyabura only chuckled slightly, shoving Cara off the edge of the bed at the same time. "Well, if you don't want anyone to assume you're having sex with me on your first day, you might want to take a shower and get ready. If you do want to look that way, you're welcome to sleep in for another hour."

Grumbling loudly as she slowly picked herself off the floor she walked over to what she assumed was the bathroom. The combination of cramped muscles from laying in uncomfortable positions and her lack of sleep made the process of undressing that much more agonizingly slow. After her fifth attempt to remove the clasp on her bra though, she started to get frustrated, sighing angrily as she failed again, her thumbs growing even number with each attempt. She was about to just give up and yank it off when she heard a low laugh behind her. A moment later, warm hands calmly started working their way up her back to finish the work that had taken her minutes in a few seconds. With a slight flick of his fingers, Jyabura had unclasped it, letting the item drop to the floor.

"Didn't think it could be that hard to do, I guess I stand corrected." Jyabura massaged her shoulders for a few seconds, his hot hands releasing any built up knots from the previous night.

"Do you always creep up on women when they're trying to undress? Might explain the lack of…. Female presence to this place." Slipping out of any remaining articles of clothing while stepping towards the small booth that appeared to be a shower. After fumbling with the knobs for another minute, a low rumble sounded throughout the wall and a spout of steaming water poured from the showerhead.

From outside the bathroom Jyabura waited to hear a yelp of pain, considering how the shower's broken heater only seemed to have the settings of scalding hot, and flames of hell for temperature. After a few seconds thought a small groan escaped from the now completely steamed over bathroom. Jyabura simply shrugged and continued dressing.

Twenty minutes later the door slowly opened and the steam collecting on the other side rolled out into the main room, dissipating quickly, a contented Cara emerging from it, skin shining beet-red from the heat of the water. "I don't suppose you have any spare women's clothes do you?"-She asked glancing across the room; Jyabura had skipped showering and was dressed in a pair of jeans and a jacket, completely ignoring any shirt underneath.

Throwing Cara's wrinkled clothes at her, Jyabura started walking over to the door. "You'll have to either wear your old clothes or check with Kalifa and see if you can borrow a pair. If you wanna go ask her, her room is at the end of the hallway and smells like shit-tons of expensive soap. I have to go check some things, when you're done dressing, everyone will probably be expecting some sort of breakfast." And with that there was a click as the door closed, leaving Cara alone for the first time.

_'Like hell I'm going to make that kind of impression on my first day.'_-She grumbled silently to herself, picking up her clothes from yesterday and quickly dressing. Walking over to the bathroom she made some last minute touch ups on her hair and made her way to the door.

Once on the outside, Cara tried to piece together whatever she could even remember from the night before. After a couple minutes and an experimental walk-around, she began to walk towards what she believed to be the end of the hallway. After about 4 minutes though, she started to slow down,a little ways back, she had heard what sounded like a groan coming from down the hallway, nearing what looked to be the final stretch of the hall; she heard another sound that almost seemed like a quiet chuckle. Seconds later one of the doors in front of her opened and a voiced, directed at whoever else might be in the room, said "You know I don't like to make bets on things like that, if you want my opinion though, I don't think I would've won that."

Closing the door, the man with the long nose,-Kaku was it?- stepped out from the room, closing the door behind him while laughing slightly, and continued to make his way to the door straight across from the previous one. Wincing a little as he started walking, but only for one or two steps. He was already about halfway across the hall before he noticed two things; first, there was a person a couple feet behind him, second, he was still naked from his late night 'training' with a certain person. With an awkward grin, he turned his head slowly to see who was behind, behind careful to keep the front part of his lower body pointed away from view.

"Well….good morning Cara… I was just… getting ready to… do some laundry. Yes, some laundry. Sorry if I might've made this a little awkward for the both of us." Still keeping that grin plastered to his face, he resumed walking back towards his original destination, this time a little bit quickly.

"Did the washing machine happen to have hands?"

Puzzled, Kaku stopped, this time not turning around. "Pardon?"

Chuckling, Cara began walking towards what she hoped was Kalifa's room, considering there were only 3 more doors left, and she had already seen two of them being used. "Well, there are some palm marks all over your back. That 'Washing Machine' sure is kinky, I guess. On a side note, if this is something you two lovebirds want to keep secret, I saw nothing." Something resembling a sigh echoed through the hall as Cara continued on her way.

Upon reaching the door, Cara knocked tentatively._ 'What if she's sleeping? What if she's not a morning person? Oh god she could be waiting to maul my face off for waking her up. I don't think anyone will judge me for wearing the same clothes two days in a row. I mean Jyabura was wearing pajamas for majority of yesterday. Yeah, I'll be fi-'"_You can come in, Cara." Cara stopped, she hadn't even realized but her body was half poised to walk (if not sprint) back to her room. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and opened the door. Tentatively, she poked her head around the edge to make sure she heard right. The room on the other side was the complete opposite of the bland, white hallway outside. From the vibrant flower pots placed along the walls to the polished steel gray tile floor. The strangest part though, seemed to be the massive bath sitting right in the middle of the room.

Kalifa appeared to be sitting at a small glass table set right next to the bath, lazily scribbling in what looked to be a black sketchbook, laced with red ribbon. Upon noticing Cara though, she promptly shut it and stored it away in the tiny purse by her side. With a devilish glint in her eye, she asked the question she already knew the answer to.

"What do you need?"

Paling a few shades, Cara backed up a bit, prepared to retreat to the hallway, if need be. "I was wondering if you had a pair of spare clothes that I could borrow, considering I didn't bring any extras with me."

Laughing darkly, Kalifa stood up, and began to walk towards a pair of double doors, painted a deep blue, set in the corner of the room. While walking, she called over her shoulder "Of course dear, but I will give these clothes to you on one condition. You must make use of the… charm of these clothes, and you must make good use of them."

Taking a deep breath, Cara followed her into the room, knowing full well that these will probably be the last relatively normal moments of her employment.

**Once again, I apologize for the now 3 month late update, relatives and school did not leave a lot of spare time. **


	4. Chapter 4

"Um K-Kalifa, what is that?

"Oh nothing, we'll put that on later. Now this might be a little bit tight, but it should look very… nice once we're all done."

"Wait a second, is that a corset? Well, thanks Kalifa, but… I don't think I'll need something that serious, maybe just some jeans and a T-shirt? Kalifa, I said no, I don't even think that'll fit, please, let's not try that on."

"Now Cara you can't just go with something plain and ordinary, you need to be unique. And you know they say, 'If you want to be unique, wear tight clothes and corsets.'"

"Well there are other ways to stand ou- wait what? Who in the world ever said that? You know what, it's okay, I think I'll survive with these clothe- ungh."

A thump, similar to that of a bag of rocks sounded throughout the closet as Kalifa stood over Cara's unconscious body, a small welt already showing on the back of her head.

"You _did _promise you wouldn't disagree with my choices, and we can't let you go out wearing those clothes. Now look what you made me do, do you know how hard it is to put make up on unconscious person, I'll answer that for you, very hard.

Dragging, Cara's limp form to the makeup table in the corner of the room, Kalifa resumed what she had previously been doing before thwarting Cara's attempts to escape. Humming silently to herself, she began sifting through her drawers, looking for a pair of her trademark fishnets to try on Cara when a timid knock sounded on the door.

"Sorry if this is a bad time Kalifa but, do you have Cara? Jyabura's about to turn on the stove and I still haven't cleaned the scorch marks off of the ceiling from last time."- Kaku called from the other side of the closet door.

"Yes, she's over here, I was just helping her with a change of clothes. Just a hypothetical question Kaku, but, what would you do if I had… accidentally, of course… knocked her unconscious?"

Seconds later the door opened, revealing Kaku, the beginnings of a frown painting his face, with a silently chuckling Lucci behind him.

Releasing an exasperated sigh upon seeing Cara's silent body leaning against Kalifa's mirror, Kaku leaned over to pick up the sleeping secretary "Kalifa, we already went over this, just because you have a difference of opinions with someone, doesn't mean you have a right to disable them, what if you actually injured her? Unless you want to be filing the mission reports for all of our targets, be careful."

"In my defence, she did come to me Kaku, and, it was only a corset, no big deal. But if you're going to take care of her, I have no complaints, tell me when the dog's done eating if you can." Turning back to her mirror, Kalifa began unrolling her pair of fishnets as Kaku exited, Lucci all the while laughing to himself in the back.

Walking through the hallway, the two men made their way towards the stairs, Kaku carrying Cara bridal style. About a minute into the walk, Kaku let out a startled yelp, mostly directed at the still silent form in his arms. Lucci, next to him, raised a questioning eyebrow. "Is she waking already? I didn't take her to be that strong; most victims of Kalifa's… disagreements are out cold for another hour." Obviously, the girl in his arms had different ideas on how to spend her morning, and sleeping wasn't on the agenda.

From Cara's semi-consciousness, she only noticed a few things about her surroundings. First, everything was dark. Next, she couldn't tell what, but the right side of her face was resting on something warm, almost hot, the soft fabric covering the object made it a very nice pillow, yet, most enjoyable of all, this thing – whatever it was – smelled very… musky, honestly, Cara liked it. Cara turned her face towards the source and shoved her face in, not caring whatever or whoever had just become victim to her assault. From a distance she heard what almost sounded like a voice, and from even farther away, was that laughing?

"I… I think she's nuzzling me. Lucci stop laughing, this is funny at all." Kaku tried to scold Lucci while also moving his arm away from the invading nose.

"Correct that, it isn't funny for you, for me the combined act of her unconsciously embarrassing you _and_ the acrobatics show you're putting up trying to avoid her makes this quite entertaining for me." Lucci said as he continued to laugh.

"Lucci, we can't make fun of people because of what they do while they're sleeping, they can't control it." Kaku tried to put on a condescending look, finally giving up on avoiding Cara's attacks. What sounded quite similar to a contented purr came from the face now buried in Kaku's chest. Sighing in defeat, Kaku resumed walking, hard set on not looking back at the probably leering face of Lucci.

By the time they reached the stairs, though, Cara had begun to make some strange noises. And two steps after they started the bumpy descent to the kitchen, she finally turned her head around to see what was happening. Blinking her eyes a couple times, she stared at the man walking next to Kaku for a few seconds then glanced back at Kaku, eyes still blurry from sleeping; she somehow managed to yawn while asking "Is he the washing machine?"

Making sure Lucci couldn't see his slight blush, Kaku smiled slightly, whispering back "Yes."

Cara set her head back to resting on Kaku's shoulder; whispering "Good choice."

When Cara's eyes opened next it was due to the fact that she was being shaken like a ragdoll by a certain wolf-man-thingy. Looking around the room, from the refrigerator to the stove, she took a wild guess that she was in a kitchen. She tried to place her head back down on the granite counter, succeeding only for the span of 2 seconds before she received the throttle treatment again. Opening her eyes again, she sent a withering glare in towards the source of her annoyance, Jyabura finished shaking her but he didn't stop talking with that oh too happy face. '_He was talking this entire time? Maybe that's why he shook me so much. Not a proper way to get people to listen though, if you ask me.'_

"-re you even listening? Stop trying to sleep, you've had enough of that. Are you going to make breakfast or are we going to glare at each other till you fall asleep again?" Jyabura folded his arm on top of the counter, propping his head right in front of Cara and proceeding to stare her down.

Still rubbing her sore forehead-who knew counters made such terrible pillows?- she let her hand wander to the rear of her head, where a small welt was hiding under her strawberry locks. Yelping in pain after one touch she decided that was an area best left to heal.

Looking around she noticed an apologetic looking Kaku, who attempted to mouth '_Sorry'_ while indicating Jyabura with a nod of his head. He was currently seated at the counter which led out into the eating/training room, stocked with exercise equipment from weights to stationary bicycles; there was even a small ring in the center designed for some type of sparring.

The state of the kitchen itself was in pretty good condition, the pantry was fully stocked, although it looked as if it hadn't been used in decades, and whoever maintained it had the common sense to replace the eggs and milk every now and then. '_It shouldn't be too hard to make some scrambled eggs and bacon. At least it'll give me some privacy, however long it will last.'_

She shut her eyes for a few seconds, clearing the last bit of sleep out of them, "Okay, if you want some breakfast though, you'll have to leave me alone for a bit."

When Jyabura stood still though, apparently savoring his victory, Cara just proceeded to stare him down for a moment, before her eyes lit up, the beginnings of a devious plan reaching her mind. Smiling she rubbed her hands together, doing a comic villains laugh, and turned towards the fridge, while walking towards it, she winked at Kaku and mouthed _'Cover your ears'_, he simply nodded and went to go sit on the opposite side of the training room. Taking a handful of ice cubes, she carried them over to the sink, stationed on the island in the middle.

Dropping about a dozen ice cubes into the sink, she grinned at Jyabura before flipping the switch on the garbage disposal.

The sound that came out of the drain made nails on a chalk board sound like a work of musical art. Cara had experience with this trick and the sound only made her cringe slightly, on the other side of the room though, Jyabura was making faces that she would savor – and tease him - for as long as she could remember them.

The assault only lasted about 6 seconds, but by the time the ice had either melted or been shredded to finite specs, Jyabura had managed to stumble out of them room awkwardly, both hands clamped onto his ears.

Laughing, Cara called after him "My bad, I forgot dogs had sensitive ears, honest mistake, right?" The only response she got was some very loud grumblings from the hall outside the kitchen. Assuming the wolf had decided to leave her in peace long enough to make a meal, she turned around; the other two men of CP9 were seated at the small bar between the kitchen and the training room, Lucci reading the newspaper quietly while Kaku stared at Cara, eyebrow raised as he grinned in the direction of the door.

Flipping a page impatiently, Lucci sighed "Are you going to cook something, or are you and Kaku going to giggle like schoolgirls for the rest of the day?"

Cara narrowed her eye's defiantly before grumbling and turning towards the fridge "Kaku, your washing machine's got a bitchy attitude."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, nothing."

There, I'm done, not much to say other than sorry for the wait.

~Next chapter: Cara and Kaku make a bet, 0.o


	5. I win!

**I'm Back :D**

**My computer broke plus and I've just been sitting around sleeping or studying for school so I didn't really get to pay much attention to this for a while.**

The fridge opened with a small squeak as Cara gazed upon its contents. Aside from the fifty-something bottles of protein smoothies, milkshakes, and any other drinks that made them sound slightly more potable, she found at least 2 dozen eggs and 4 gallons of milk. Taking half of their stock, along with a small container of butter, she began arranging the materials on the steel-gray counter top in the kitchen.

Back in the exercising room it looked like Jyabura and Lucci were sparring, the other two members were alternating between watching them and reading. Both of the assassins had taken off their shirts and were only wearing black shorts, the gleaming chests had a large amount of scars covering them. The two were going at each other with long wooden staves and by the looks of it, they were both taking a beating, if the red marks or the thick layer of sweat covering and visible skin was a big enough hint.

Easing up behind Kaku, who sitting at the bar between the kitchen and exercise room, Cara whispered "So were you sparring with your washing machine last night? 'Cause they look just like you did this morning"

Watching his eyes grow wide and almost choking on his drink was enough entertainment for her as she went back to prepping the materials. Taking a pan out she sliced a small piece of butter to melt in the pan while she began cracking all of the eggs in a measuring cup. Unscrewing the cap on the milk she took a swig to make sure it wasn't spoiled (considering the condition they kept the kitchen in, it wouldn't surprise her).

The moment the first drops hit her tongue, the rest of the carton flew into the sink, along with a string of curses echoing throughout the room. "Holy shit! I mean I wouldn't be surprised if the milk spoiled but that is something far worse! OH GOD I CAN STILL TASTE IT! WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE THAT DEMON SPAWN IN THE KITCHEN?!"

While Cara was busy performing a multitude of cleansing rituals, trying to lose the taste of the milk, the others had stopped what they were doing, the majority of them were just staring, but Jyabura just sat on the ground and started laughing his ass off.

"THIS ISNT FUNNY! I SWEAR I WILL SHOVE THAT STAFF DOWN YOUR THROAT!

Making a series of calming gestures Kaku tried to quiet her down while pointing towards one of the labels on the carton. "It says 'Protein Formula' for a reason, Cara, we use this when we exercise, and it's kinda expensive so please, refrain from throwing half of its contents down the sink in a fit of rage."

Pausing her rant for a second, she glanced down at the container, above a small picture of some dumbbells, in bright blue lettering; it said 'Protein Formula'. Walking back to the refrigerator, she checked the cartons again. On the same shelf as the blue formula, there were 2 green cartons labeled 'Skim Milk'. Breathing quickly through her nose she turned back towards Kaku, the others having resumed what they were doing (though they were pretending not to be eavesdropping), she hissed quietly "Now why would you put that god-forsaken poison right next to . ?"

"Because we're not colorblind and can notice the difference between green and blue." He calmly replied, returning to the book he had been previously reading.

Picking up the blue carton, she turned back and place it on the shelf, replacing it with a carton of normal milk, all the while grumbling something along the lines of "Fucking lucky all the men in this room are on par with fucking supermodels, or else I'd feel okay shattering some faces."

Glancing up from his book Kaku smiled "I'm sorry, what?"

"Breakfast will be done in about 15 minutes"

In the span of about 10 minutes the table she had set with eggs, bacon, and orange juice became victim to 3 hungry animals, and a polite woman. Cara watched from her seat at the table, in horror, as the proceeding battle ravaged the table.

"Lucci, that's my bacon."

"I don't see your name on it. Besides, there's 10 other slices, do throw a hissy fit, mutt."

"I'm pretty sure you shed over those pieces though"

In an attempt to grab another piece of bacon, Kaku almost lost a few fingers to Jyabura's knife, "I thought giraffes were vegetarian."

"Natural selection, now can you remove the knife from my sleeve?"

"Was nature blind or just plain dumb?"

Appalled, Cara picked up her plate and began making her way to the kitchen, hoping to bunker out and avoid any shrapnel from the table. The war that continued almost broke the table in half, from a safe distance; it was actually funny to watch, even though she barely dodged a flying spoon by inches.

By the time everything had settled down, the table had about 20 new scars, all bowls and plates scraped clean of any possible food. Sneaking out of the kitchen, Cara made her way to the table to clean up anything still intact. All the assassins had resumed training or reading.

Leaving the table clean, save a knife imbedded down to its handle which she couldn't remove, Cara placed the remaining plates in the sink and made her way to one of the chair scattered around the exercise room. Throwing herself into she sighed, trying to plan a way to survive lunch.

Sitting next to her, she found Kaku, watching the sparring match that continued in the middle of them room. "Who do you think's going to win?"

Kaku smiled, "They do this almost every day, every time, Lucci wears him down and wins. By now it's just entertaining to watch Jyabure expect different results."

With a devilish glint in her eyes she grinned "I don't know, I mean there's always a chance. Oh! I know! How about, we place a wager, whoever wins, has to do what the other asks. If Jyabura wins, you have to by me new clothes, considering how I didn't bring any with me."

Chuckling, Kaku put his book down. "All right, if Lucci wins, like always, you have to….. ask Jyabura out on a date."

"What?"

"He's the least social out of all of us, I mean even Kalifa goes over to Water 7 every now and then, he just stays in his garden and sleeps. It's just weird. So, what do you say?" holding out his hand with a grin.

Cara just laughed and shook it. "No cheating"

"Of course"

And so the two of them turned their complete attention to the match, waiting to see who would be the winner.

And they waited

And they kept on waiting

For the span of nearly two hours, they watched. Growing tired, Cara sighed glancing over at Kaku, she apologized "I'm sorry, but I really need new clothes, and that dog is stinky."

Puzzled he turned "What do you mea-"

But it was too late Cara took in a deep breath, held it for a second, then at the top of her lungs shouted- "NO, KAKU, I WILL NOT TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES FOR YOU, THAT'S DISGUSTING"

In the span of 3 seconds, Kaku's eyes widened, Lucci turned around, eyes glowing fire, and Jyabura's sparring staff hit home, sending a silent thump throughout the room.

Standing up and dusting off her pant Cara made for the door rather quickly, calling in happiness

"I win!"


	6. Nurse Jyabura, to the rescue!

As soon as Cara turned the corner into the hallway, she ran, guessing from the angry roar coming from the training room, she was about to give chase to at least one trained assassin for what she did. She kept running, pumping her legs to their limit, not even stopping to consider turns, she didn't know where she was heading or how to get back, all she knew is, she wouldn't lose something as simple as hide and seek, however more dangerous being chased by multiple assassins made it.

Keeping up her pace, she continued running, behind her the sound of doors opening and closing slowly approached, letting a grateful sigh out, glad she hadn't tried hiding in any of the bedrooms or other rooms. By know she hadn't even paid attention to how many turns she took all she knew was to follow a constant pattern of left turn, right turn, left turn, right turn.

After another 5 minutes, Cara reached a dead end, the sound of doors opening and closing still present behind, staring hard at the 5 doors in front of her, she did the only thing she could, eenie-meenie-minie-moe. When she was finished, her hand had landed upon a small gray door, stepping forward; she turned the steel knob and entered it.

The room inside was dark, searching for a light switch, the only thing Cara could tell at the moment was that it was tall, tall enough to add an almost eerie echo to it. Sighing in relief as her hands bumped the edge of something sticking out of the wall. Placing her fingertips on the end of the switch she flicked it down and turned around. The room behind her put the word 'big' to shame. It appeared to be some kind of library, considering the bookcases that towered to what must be around 30 feet.

Cara continued taking in the vast room before her for all of about 15 seconds before she realized she was still being chased. Taking a deep breath she turned the lights back off and calmly strode into the inky darkness.

Ten minutes later

Still walking through the seemingly endless hallway, Jyabura continued his pattern of searching rooms, one after another, open door, turn on lights, check closets, leave. He was nearing, if he remembered correctly, the end of the tower's north wing, each of the other CP9 members had taken to a different wing.

After the situation at the training room, Lucci's first defeat was something of a shock. As the resounding thud of the sparring staff sounded against Lucci's skull, his body crumpled against the floor like a ball of paper. For what seemed like a year, the room was quiet, then Kaku closed his book, stood up and walked towards the doorway "When he wakes up, there's gonna be a certain redhead in his crosshairs. And he's going to be pretty angry. We might want to find the girl before we have another incident; Lucci didn't leave much of the last secretary intact." Kaku hummed as he left the room and turned into one of the other hallways.

Since then, Jyabura had been searching the rooms for Cara. Each room as empty as the last, he kept walking down the gray hall. Nearing the end of the North Wing, he sighed, there were three rooms left, a storage closet for cleaning supplies, an infirmary, and the library. He opening the door to the closet when he heard a rustle from the Library, pausing, he turned and opened its doors instead. The two black chunks of wood squeaked a bit as they opened.

Waiting for the dust clouds to settle, Jyabura proceeded to enter the room and close the doors behind him, flicking the lights on he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight before him. Sitting calm and collected at one of the foremost desks was Lucci, quietly leafing through a book. His curls held back in a ponytail to avoid distracting him from reading.

"Holy fucking shit Lucci!" Jyabura exhaled, not having the breath to shout left in him. "How the hell did you get in here? Last time I saw you, you were headed in the complete opposite direction!"

Shutting his book with a sigh, Lucci glared across the room with enough force to make Jyabura inwardly cringe, remaining firm on the outside though. Leaning back in his chair Lucci diverted his attention to staring at the ceiling "Obviously you're not as good of a spy as you think, not be able to track one person. By the way, have any of you managed to find the girl yet?"

Slowly entering the room, Jyabura made a point of closing the door, loud enough to rattle its frame. Turning back towards Lucci, he growled out "I'll just ignore the fact that you called my skills poor and move onto the second part, as far as I know, we haven't found her yet, but Kaku and Kalifa should be finishing their branches of the tower, so any minute now she'll be in our hands. And I emphasize _our_ hands, we're not going to let you murder another secretary over as trivial a thing as this." Remaining in front of the door so as to block the room's only exit.

Standing up, Lucci moved towards the bookshelves behind him. Placing the book he was reading in its respectful place, he returned to his desk, only to sit on the edge this time, kicking up little storms of dust from the long-forgotten wooden floor. "Well you caught me here, for that you get some kudos. On the subject of the girl, let me out of here, I'll give up this chase. I forgot how much I hated both dust and reading." As if to prove it, he loud out a little sneeze, shooting up another cloud of dust from the floor.

Jyabura stood silent for a moment, debating the chances that the cat was lying. After a couple more seconds of silence, he realized how little of a chance he would stand at contained lucci for an extended time, the wolf rolled his eyes in defeat and stepped away from the door, allowing Lucci to leave. Smiling, Lucci got up from the desk and walked across the room. Making sure to walk as slowly as possible, savoring his victory. He continued to quietly gloat as he neared Jyabura, who continued to avoid looking at the smug cat.

As Lucci neared though, he suddenly let out a groan from deep within him. "Oh fuck me." Was all that escaped before he collapsed to the floor like a wet rag. As he fell, something resembling ripples began to spread across his skin, and milliseconds later, his body began to change, beginning with his hair which began to alternate between practically the entire color spectrum until it settled on a dark shade of blonde on the verge of red. Also, his skin decided it was time to impersonate heated wax, literally chunks of it began fall from his skin, splashing to the floor only to disappear a second later. As more and more skin began to fall, different features started to surface, these ones surprisingly feminine. Delicate cheekbones, a narrow jawline, even a slimmer nose began to make themselves known as Jyabura stood there, the embodiment of pure horror plastered to his face as he was too surprised to step away. When it was all over, the only thing remaining was an unconscious body face down on the floor.

When Cara woke up, the first thing she did was check her surroundings; in this case, it was easy. Opening her eyes, the first and only thing she saw was darkness. Reaching out she couldn't even she her hands right in front of her. Trying to find any form of light, she began to panic, chest pulling in quick, shallow gulps of air. A slight gasp escaped her mouth before she heard a chuckle to her side, followed by some steps. Seconds later, the darkness lifted, she had to blink a couple times to recognize Jyabura above her, waving a damp washcloth, smiling gently.

Standing right next to the bed she recognized as his own, he kneeled down to be eye-to-eye with her. Reaching behind him he grabbed a cup that had once been hot, but was now reduced to a slight warmth. Realizing it was for her she lifted a very sore arm and took hold of the cup's tiny handle. Holding it to her lips, she took a tiny sip to discover it was only tea, tipping the cup again, she took a bigger sip, only to nearly choke on it when she remembered how she got into her situation.

Eyes widening with his hand already in place to pat her on the back, Jyabura edged forward on his knees. "Careful, is everything alright, you took a good hit to the face when you fell, are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Placing the cup on a nearby nightstand, Cara nodded "yea, just a sore nose and a wounded sense of pride." Looking down she wound the sheets of the bed around her hands "So are we not going to talk about what you saw in that library?"

Jyabura leaned back on his heels for a second, frowning, then he leaned back in, staring straight at Cara, who was busy trying to do the exact opposite. "Yea we can talk about that, or we can talk about why you were both screaming and crying in your sleep."

Cara's face whitened, then slowly, she raised her gaze and looked Jyabura dead in the face, eyes darkening slightly she simply whispered "no."

**Bam, I finished the chapter. Sorry it took so long, I was about 3/4****th****s of the way done, then m computer decided to freeze and delete the vast majority of it so I basically completely rewrote this entire chapter.**


End file.
